Abstract

Migrants with precarious legal statuses experience significant structural exclusion from their host nations but may still feel partial belonging. This article explores two dimensions potentially relevant for this group’s sense of belonging: city-level opportunity structures and public political discourses. Specifically, we examine perceptions of belonging among forced migrants with similarly precarious legal statuses located in Istanbul and Vienna. Drawing from semi-structured interviews, we argue that opportunity structures in the cities provide a minimal sense of social normalness within a period of life otherwise considered anomalous or exceptional. Any articulations of belonging in this context however remain inherently tied to the conditions of legal limbo at the national level. With regard to public political discourses, migrants display a strong awareness of the role of religion within national debates on culture and integration. In a context where religion is discussed as a mediator of belonging, we found explicit affirmations of such discourses, whereas in a context where religion is discussed as a marker of difference, we found implicit compliance, despite feelings of alienation. Overall, this article shows the importance of differentiating belonging, and of cross-regional comparisons for highlighting the diverse roles of cities and public political discourses in facilitating integration.

Highlights

  • The political crisis of migration governance in 2015 spurred new public debates on immigrant integration in host societies within the EU and beyond

  • The central question that we address in this article is: How do persons with a precarious legal status experience belonging in specific urban contexts? Drawing together results from two different cities enables us to explore the practical and cognitive-cultural role of cities and public political discourses in integration processes

  • The two cities we study, it seems, are able to create a minor sense of belonging, which is mainly articulated in terms of social normalness within a period of life otherwise considered anomalous or exceptional

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Summary

Introduction

The political crisis of migration governance in 2015 spurred new public debates on immigrant integration in host societies within the EU and beyond. Policymaking classically entails a discursive construction of policy recipients (Pierce et al, 2014), and in the context of integration, political debates oftentimes evolve around immigrants’ willingness or capability to belong to a nationally defined society. We study perceptions of belonging by analyzing qualitative interviews with forced migrants who arrived in Austria and Turkey between 2011 and 2017, paying particular attention to our interlocutors’ discussions of city specific opportunity structures and public political discourses on forced migrants. We introduce the concept of belonging, explain how it is tied to the structural conditions of forced migrants, in the context of cities, and discuss how it is related to public political discourses on integration and culture. The final section of the article sums up the major conclusions about the role of cities and public political discourses for migrants’ perceptions of belonging

Theoretical Framework
Belonging Mediated by City Level Opportunity Structures
Belonging Mediated by Public Political Discourses on Integration and Culture
National Level
City Level
Data and Methodology
Findings
Belonging Mediated through Organizational Boundaries
Belonging Mediated through Conceptual Boundaries
Conclusion
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